Some people go under the knife or have injections every few months to smooth their skin, while others depend on wrinkle creams and lotions or just allow nature to take its course.

Some people go under the knife or have injections every few months to smooth their skin, while others depend on wrinkle creams and lotions or just allow nature to take its course.

Whatever the approach, anti-aging products are a multibillion-dollar industry in North America, and now a Canadian dentist is getting into the act.

Dr. Bruno Paliani, of London, Ont., is among the first dentists in this country to start fitting patients with a removable device called Angellift.

Manufactured in California, it is worn inside the mouth and "gives patients another option to help them remain looking younger," Paliani says, who charges less than $500 for an upper, and the same for a lower (some people take both).

"It fits above the gum lines and it lifts and supports the tissues around the face, so what it does is it removes wrinkles and it prevents further deepening of the wrinkles as the patients age," Paliani says.

He's fitted a handful of patients. A spokesperson for Medical Matrix, the U.S.-based company that developed and markets the device, says about 500 North American dentists are trained. Dr. Wayne Halstrom, president of the Canadian Dental Association, says the association doesn't take an official position on cosmetic procedures. But, personally, fitting patients with the device "wouldn't fall into something that I would participate in," he said from Vancouver.

"When we talk about cosmetics in dentistry, our position on that would be yes, when it involves...replacement of teeth with bridges or dentures for cosmetic reasons. They also would have a dental reason for doing that. In the case of the lift, there is no dental reason for doing it."

There would also be issues of cleanliness and bacteria build-up, he notes.

"How clean do they (users) keep them between wearings? That's a consistent concern for dentists who are treating patients with removable appliances."

Aaron Bruce, an official with Medical Matrix in San Diego, says the lift can be worn all the time, but users are advised to remove it before eating.

A patient study that followed 170 people found, after 30 days, they wore the device for an average of three hours a day. Thirty-two patients reported discomfort and all 170 saw facial improvement.

After a year, it was worn for an overall average of 1.2 hours a day. Sixteen of the original 170 people could not be reached, but of the 154 who were contacted, 12 patients had discomfort and 143 reported facial improvement.

Bruce says the concept was used by European actors more than 25 years ago when they would put something in the space behind their lips to change their appearance.

The Angellift came about when Medical Matrix was building a prototype insert for a California surgeon who wanted to give patients a "preview" of their appearance before putting implants under their lips.

"Then, all of a sudden," Bruce says, "they realized, wow, this is not just a preview but you could wear this without any discomfort and it does manipulate the face."

Dentists, he says, welcome the device, because it's their only tool to fight wrinkles. "And in the U.S., and in Canada, wrinkle-fighting is a big business."

Meredith Ralston, a professor of women's studies and political science who lived in California for a couple of years and is now at Mount Saint Vincent University, says she isn't surprised that the product originated in the Golden State.

"Honestly from what I could see there, those women will do anything to look younger, to be more marketable," she says from Halifax. "Many of the people I met were in the film industry, so I think that's part of it, too. But even screenwriters that I met there were very, very conscious of what they looked like."

Could it catch on with a segment of the population in Canada?

As the dental association's Halstrom says: "The consumer is a very unpredictable animal" and "only time will tell."

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